Dem strategist: Sink's critical tactical error

From Fernand Amandi with Bendixen & Amandi: "Democrats squandered a genuine chance of recapturing the governor's office, a seat they haven't held for 12 years. This would have been a critical pick up, particularly with redistricting on the horizon and the 2012 campaign approaching.

"How did this happen? One important factor: An early strategic decision by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink to deemphasize the Hispanic vote, ignoring a crucial element of the winning roadmap laid out by the Obama campaign in 2008...

"Now, just two years after that, the Sink campaign received only 48 percent of this crucial vote and as a result lost the election by a single percentage point. Contrary to all the righteous indignation about the president and his agenda as an excuse for Sink's failure, it was this critical tactical error that cost her the election.

"...Hispanic turnout among conservative Cuban voters in Miami was up as a result of having Senate candidate Marco Rubio, a conservative Cuban, on the ballot, while turnout among progressive Hispanics, who actually form a majority of Hispanics statewide, was down because there was virtually no Democratic campaign to reach out to them."